What a feast! Not only at worship this past weekend, but also last Wednesday at the Pet Blessing/Wednesday supper kick off meal! My favorite comment about the Wednesday picnic was from one of our youngest members who said, very enthusiastically, how much better it was to eat with a big group of people and how it even makes the food taste better! Ahh...that really was a "foretaste of the feast to come". Click here for a pictures of the evening!
With that theme before us this past weekend, that raised the conversation that has been started in the whole church about the practice of Holy Communion. Who should take communion? At what age? How often? What are any prerequisites? When many of us were growing up, we didn't start communing until after confirmation. Now, we commune much younger members, and for good reasons.
In the sermon this past week we heard the story of Sara Miles, who, raised an atheist, walked into a church one Sunday, at age 46, went to the table when the Eucharist was being celebrated, took the bread and wine....and was never the same since. God touched her in a powerful way. Christ was present. (You can read her whole story in her book, "Take This Bread".)
On that day for Sara Miles, in that church, none of the rules were followed. But God was doing something. I'm afraid we often get used to doing this thing called Holy Communion, and forget the radical, life giving nature of what God is doing here! The Holy, Eternal, All Powerful God, is coming to us...in bread and wine. We are feeding on Jesus himself, and in doing so become the Body of Christ in and for the world! What a meal! What a feast!
In the words of the refrain we sang with our Psalm, "Let us go now to the banquet, to the feast of the universe. The table's set and a place is waiting; come, everyone, with your gifts to share."
And the celebration and conversation continues.
See you at the table! Pastor Jack Diehl +
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